Robert Kroetsch won the U of As Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003

The opening poem of Robert Kroetschs new collection of verse brilliantly captures the authors dilemma. Called On tour, it describes an awkward radio interview in which Kroetsch is asked, Tell us again, who are you?
I knew I was in trouble, writes the poet. Ill get you a printout of my DNA, he says to his interviewer, who is baffled by this refusal to conform to the unspoken rules of self-promotion.
I was clutching at straws, confesses Kroetsch. He looked disappointed again, my radio host.
Thus begins a series of sketches toward a self-portrait called Too Bad by the renowned poet and novelist. Published by University of Alberta Press, it straddles the line between memoir and self-creation, replete with Kroetschs trademark playfulness and ambiguity.
In his long and successful literary career—which includes such beautifully rendered postmodern works as What the Crow Said and The Studhorse Man, for which he won the Governor-Generals Award for fiction in 1969—the Heisler, Alberta, native and U of A English graduate has always resisted assignment to tidy category or transparent meaning. Now living in Leduc, he has penned nine internationally acclaimed novels, 13 books of poetry and five books of non-fiction essays. He won the U of As Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.

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[datalal624]

R.I.P. Robert Kroetsch. What a sad end to a great life! He will be missed.